New Land Enterprises, Korb + Associates Architects and Thornton Tomasetti have unveiled the design for the tallest timber building in the Western Hemisphere. Dubbed Ascent, construction is scheduled to start in the fall of 2019 and the 21-story mixed-use development will stand at 238 feet tall and comprise 410,000 square feet in downtown Milwaukee.

With the use of mass timber on the rise, it is expected to perform better than traditional building materials when it comes to earthquakes, fire and wind conditions. When combined, laminated timber beams, columns and slabs in mass timber structures have the potential to be one of the greatest man-made storehouses of CO2 by saving enough energy to power 1,000 households per year or absorbing as much carbon dioxide as produced by 2,100 cars.

John Peronto, a principal at Thornton Tomasetti told how the modern use of mass timber’s modular construction offers a competitive and sustainable alternative to typical materials used in high-rise buildings such as steel and concrete.

Find out more about the structure and materials used in the full article.